With Diddy's Taste, Who Needs Talent?

Running through a series of sobriquets from Puffy to Diddy, the superstar producer-clothier Sean John Combs has recorded four albums of his own, including the new "Press Play," perhaps his best since his 1997 debut, "No Way Out." It's time to give Diddy his due. At the very least, he is the most talented no-talent ever.

He may be, as he says on his new album, "hard to love," yet Diddy has a certain genius -- and it's clearly on display in "Press Play." He knows what rocks the dance floor.

Everything on this album is big. Big fanfares, big drums, big sounds. And there are big names, too -- Kanye West, Nas and Jamie Foxx among them. But for once, the ideas are bigger. This is the kind of album that Diddy would have never let his minions make back in the day. For Diddy, it's almost experimental.

Musically, "Press Play" is a virtual tour of electropop history. Early '80s drums are everywhere. Echoes of Mantronix abound in the first single, "Come to Me." Producer Danja channels Bambaataa on "Diddy Rock" and Larry Smith on "Wanna Move." Will.I.Am grabs Prince's sounds on "Special Feeling." And Mario Winans finishes with a production tour de force: old-fashioned new wave on "Last Night," a little Arthur Baker on "Through the Pain" and a lethal dose of drum 'n' bass on "Thought You Said."

Sure, Diddy paid for these beats. But Diddy has taste that money can't buy. His acute ear and rich sonic vocabulary serve him well throughout "Press Play." It's Diddy's lyrical lexicon that scores considerably lower. What can you say about a guy whose flow on "Thought You Said" can't even match guest star Brandy's?

Diddy hired indie rapper Pharoahe Monch to ghostwrite a few gourmet verses for him, but he never achieves the autobiographical eloquence he seeks. Diddy's better in his original recipe: arrogance. "She diggin' my style, my swag, my sway, my swerve," he rhymes on "Come to Me," tossing words like playing cards.

When you tire of his first single, note that Diddy has at least two more monsters coming. "Making It Hard" has Mary J. Blige doing Amerie doing Mary J. Blige over an Ameriesque track by producer Rich Harrison. The album's hardest track, "Tell Me," features Diddy's most unlikely collaborator, Christina Aguilera, making mincemeat of an insane Just Blaze beat. With these songs waiting in the wings, "Press Play" should easily take us through Christmas 2007.

Of course, when these hits fade, you'll forget this album. Diddy is temporal, not timeless.

DOWNLOAD THESE: "Thought You Said" (featuring Brandy), "Tell Me" (featuring Christina Aguilera), "Everything I Love" (featuring Nas and Cee-Lo)